Organizations such as on-line retailers, Internet service providers, search providers, financial institutions, universities, and other computing-intensive organizations often conduct computer operations from large scale computing facilities. Such computing facilities house and accommodate a large amount of server, network, and computer equipment to process, store, and exchange data as needed to carry out an organization's operations. Typically, a computer room of a computing facility includes many server racks. Each server rack, in turn, includes many servers and associated computer equipment.
Computer systems typically include a number of components that generate waste heat. Such components include printed circuit boards, mass storage devices, power supplies, and processors. For example, some computers with multiple processors may generate 250 watts of waste heat. Some known computer systems include a plurality of such larger, multiple-processor computers that are configured into rack-mounted components, and then are subsequently positioned within a rack system. Some known rack systems include 40 such rack-mounted components and such rack systems will therefore generate as much as 10 kilowatts of waste heat. Moreover, some known data centers include a plurality of such rack systems.
In many rack-mounted servers, circuit boards for the servers are housed in a rack-mounted chassis. Typically, the chassis houses a motherboard assembly, additional circuit boards, such as memory modules, coupled to the motherboard assembly, and a power supply for the electrical component in the chassis. The chassis may also house hard disk drives, fans, or other components.
Some computers, such as rack-mounted servers, may include expansion cards, such as memory cards, processor cards, graphic cards, or other types of expansion cards that are connected to the computer to expand capabilities of the computer. Different expansion cards may have different dimensions, such as different lengths, and may require holders that are designed to accommodate an expansion card with a particular set of dimensions, such as a particular length. Also, some expansion cards may share a common connector type with expansion cards having different sets of dimensions, for example expansion cards having different lengths may share a common connector type such that any of the expansion cards with different lengths can be mounted in a particular connector. However, a particular expansion card holder that is designed to accommodate an expansion card with a particular set of dimensions, such as a particular length, may not be able to accommodate an expansion card with another set of dimensions, such as a longer length.
Expansion cards mounted in a chassis of a computer, such as a rack-mounted server, may generate waste heat in addition to waste heat generated by other components of the computer.
While the invention is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way of example in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the drawings and detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims. The headings used herein are for organizational purposes only and are not meant to be used to limit the scope of the description or the claims. As used throughout this application, the word “may” is used in a permissive sense (i.e., meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense (i.e., meaning must). Similarly, the words “include,” “including,” and “includes” mean including, but not limited to.